A New Dynamite Gun.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 56, 28 June 1884, Page 5

A New Dynamite Gun.

Wk take the following from the " Dynamito Monthly," a newspaper published by the Now York Fonians : — "A maehino that looked like a 40-foot brass pipe, mounted on a steel girder, such as lie on the olevated railroad pillers, rested in tho centre of the maehino shop of tho Delamater Iron Works, New York, Tho inacluno is tho barrol and carriago of the iioav four-inch dynamite pneumatic gun, which, when completed, is expected to sink, on occasion, the largest man-of-war afloat and annihilate its crew. The gun is constructed of brass and steel, fitted in the most accurate) manner at the joints, and capablo of sustaining a pressure of 1,000 pounds to tho square inch. It weighs but a ton, and may be carried by a small gunboat. The projectile is nothing more or less than a dynamito cartridge oncasod in soft metal within a shell of brass, and fitted with a wooden tail. It weighs about 100 pounds. The soft metal filling 1 protects tho dynamito from ordinary accidents. But when the projoctile, flying at speed, strikes, head on, against a resisting surface, a hard metal pi-n embedded in the soft metal, and not touching the dynamite, is forced into tho fulminate at the head of of the cartridge and discharges the dynamito. In order that wind currents may not interfere in the precision of tho firing, tho centro of gravity is near the forward end of the projectile. The wooden tail acts as a rudder, tho wind veering the tail around and throwing tho head into the wind in proportion to the strength of the current, thus maintaining an absolutely straight course. The gun is constructed with a powerful air chamber, capablo of storing an immonse force of compre°sed air. The gunner sights with telescopo sights with air lines, and a\ ith the pressure of a finger discharges the compressed air into the barrol, and starts the projectile on its flight. Tho great length of the jtihe is required to economiso all the force of the air, which is less rapid in its action than gunpowder. 'This gun,' said Mr Jiindsdale, who is superintending the construction, ' will throw tho cartridgo three miles with a precision nover attained with gunpowdci. An ordinary projectile loses pou er with each yard it travels from the gun. This cartridge arrives ready for business, no matter how far it goes.' ' Suppose a cartridge landed on tho deck of the Thunderer (an English man-of-warship) what would happen ?' • Tho vessel would be shattered and sunk by the explosion, am 1 every living being upon tho deck would 1 blown to atoms. "Whether any one belGw the deck would live to drown in the sinking vessel I cannot state.' 'Suppose a shot from the enemy struck the vessel carrying the dynamite cartridges ?' ' Well, the boat might bo sunk by tho shot, but unless a cartridgo was struck so as to explode the fulminate tho dynamite would not explode ' The Government is experimenting at Fort Hamilton (Long Island) with a 2 inch gun, and some wondorful execution has been done. The guns may bo manufactured in any well-equipped machine shop, and cost but a song in comparison with the enormous guns turned by Krupp and at Woolwich. The same principle is applicable to field guns to be used in land engagements. A tew dynamite cartridges oxploded in a brigade -would have the efl'ect of a powder mill explosion upon the troops."